Vandalism mars rainbow doors at Cranston church

Kate Bramson Journal Staff Writer journalkate

Monday

Sep 18, 2017 at 1:06 PMSep 18, 2017 at 4:47 PM

Intended as a symbol of inclusiveness, the multicolored doors on display at Woodridge Congregational United Church of Christ were damaged before Sunday's service, but the church's pastor said the incident offers a chance to explore the concept of forgiveness.

The Rev. Scott Spencer arrived Sunday morning at Woodridge Congregational United Church of Christ in Cranston hoping his sermon on forgiveness would be the main topic of conversation, but also prepared to field questions about the new display of rainbow-colored doors that he and congregants installed last week.

He wondered if congregants would think the doors that proclaim “God’s doors are open to all” made too bold a statement or were hung in the wrong location. But he also thought congregants might express love for the doors' message of inclusiveness, with a particular focus on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Instead, Spencer was shocked when he arrived to find shattered slats on the red and purple louvered doors on either end of the display. He felt that “initial sense of your private space intruded" that people feel when a car or home is broken into.

On Monday, Spencer said he feels responsible for fixing the doors, which his church borrowed from the Newman Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Rumford. He was heartened as congregants arrived with paint and offered new doors.

After the Newman church created the doors to replicate a set that congregants saw in Connecticut, it has loaned its doors to churches within the 31-church Rhode Island Conference of the United Church of Christ, said the Rev. Timoth Sylvia, the church's senior minister. His church recently created a second set of doors for its own display.

By midday Monday, the Rev. Barbara Libby, interim conference minister of the Rhode Island Conference, United Church of Christ, knew of both congregations' efforts to replace the damaged doors.

"It's moving quickly because this is a very important symbol for us of what it means to be an open and affirming church," Libby said. "So it's possible we will have more sets of rainbow doors available."

Hanging the heavy doors outside the church, at 546 Budlong Rd., had been no easy task, Spencer said, and his team worked to secure them so they wouldn't blow too much in the wind.

In recent years, his church has developed an inclusive statement that says, in part: "As a caring and welcoming community, using the Bible as a resource and the teachings of Jesus as our guide, we joyfully welcome everyone into God’s covenantal community. We believe that: 'No matter who you are and where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here,' regardless of race, ethnicity, class, age, mental status, family structure, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender status or gender expression."

The doors embodied that work, Spencer said.

The pastor was alone when he discovered the vandalism, which was done sometime between 6 p.m. Saturday, when congregants left the church, and when he arrived around 8 a.m. Sunday. But soon, arriving congregants worked with him to clean up the mess and call the police.

While he's leaving it up to the police to determine whether this was a hate crime or merely vandalism, Spencer said the attack on the rainbow-colored doors is "very troubling to us."

Monday afternoon, Cranston Sgt. Josh Dygon said the police continued to investigate.

Although Spencer had hoped the sermon he finished writing Thursday would generate good conversation that morning, churchgoers instead began talking about the damage — on a day when two new worshipers said they arrived because they liked the message of the doors.

Spencer spoke briefly about why the church had installed the doors and the discovery of the vandalism.

Then, he talked about the Bible passage in which Jesus tells his followers "if we've received mercy from God that we should show mercy to others, and if we've been forgiven, we ought to be forgiving toward others." He talked about "Les Miserables," which is soon arriving at the Providence Performing Arts Center, and how the bishop's forgiveness of Jean Valjean, who has stolen his silver, helps that ex-convict become a "very merciful, forgiving man."

Reflecting on how his sermon may affect his reaction to the vandalism, Spencer said, "My greatest hope: We should know who these people are, not so they could be arrested and thrown in jail and have a record, but instead, perhaps they could do some community service, repairing of the doors, and sit with us so we could explain why we put the doors up and try to replace the hate in their hearts with the love of God."

Congregant Laura Dillon, of Warwick, said that while she and others learned of the vandalism, it began to sink in that such a "display of violence" had taken place in their church: "Everybody was just very sad and disappointed, kind of in a state of disbelief."

She's a Sunday school teacher, so she was in the classroom and didn't hear Spencer's sermon, but Dillon said forgiveness is a strong tenet within the church: "We stand by what we mean when we say, 'God's doors are open to all.' Wherever you are on life's journey, you're welcome here, and we really believe that."

She and her husband, Tom, didn't know immediately what to tell their children — 6-year-old Lily, 3-year-old Tommy, and two-month-old Emma. But by Sunday night, they were explaining how someone didn't make a great choice and had hurt the doors.

And Monday morning, Dillon told Tommy what she planned to tell Lily after school: "Our job now is to pass on loving kindness, because that's all we can do, and that will always go further than something like this, than somebody trying to destroy something that we stand for."

Their family dinner conversation, she said, would focus on an evergreen topic for their family: "What did you do to change the world or change someone's world today?"

Lily often answers that she played with someone who was alone on the playground, to which Dillon said, "I really believe that that does change the world."

— kbramson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7470

On Twitter: @JournalKate

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